Can We Give Up The Strong Dollar Charade?

It’s some kind of requirement that the Treasury Secretary has to say he favours a strong dollar. Rather than a statement of economic policy, it’s more like a patriotism litmus test.

If you favour a weak dollar, you’re assumed to be some kind of a borscht eater or worse, a soccer lover.

But seriously, when the government tells us that our biggest worry is falling prices, what does that mean? They don’t want the dollar to be strong, they want the dollar to be weak. That’s why Ben Bernanke is printing up $1 trillion more of it. When Geithner complains that China is manipulating currency, his complaint is that they’re making the dollar too strong.

And yet despite it all, when asked by Steve Lieseman, Geithner insists that he’s in favour of the strong dollar. Can’t we just drop this silliness?